We are professionals and we advise our other real estate colleagues to please remember that counseling a party to avoid taxes is participation in tax avoidance under the Act! Your marketing, social media and other communications all "count".

All property transfer transactions are subject to audit and all additional property transfer tax returns will be reviewed and verified. The audit period is six years from the date the transfer is registered with the Land Title Office.

Anti-avoidance provisions exist and will be enforced to ensure all property purchasers report and pay the correct amount of property transfer tax and/or the additional property transfer tax, including examining circumstances where Canadians, as taxable trustees, hold property in trust for a foreign entity or are trustees where a beneficiary may be a foreign entity.

Failure to pay the tax as required or purposely completing the property transfer tax return or the additional property transfer tax return with incorrect or misleading information may result in a penalty. These penalties may include double the tax, tax plus interest, a fine of $200,000 for corporations or $100,000 for individuals and/or up to two years in prison.